Friday, March 27, 2009

If anyone close to you has lost their mind recently, we might be able to help. Hidden off the beaten track within Parque Nacional de Doñana (Doñana National Park), Andalucía is something that bears a remarkable resemblance to the human brain.

Discovered by photographer Hector Garrido during an investigation of the National Park on behalf of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Scientific Investigation Council), this awesome image shows natural fractals from vegetation at the end of a small river delta. It looks as if the clearing was once a small lake within the marshland but has since dried up considerably, leaving a brain-like appearance to the landscape.

Although not an exact fractal by definition – the shapes aren’t identically replicated throughout the pattern – the clearing does have self-repeating quality of a fractal, as does the brain. These other images by the same photographer in various other parks in the south ofSpain demonstrates just how often the fractal pattern is seen throughout nature, something we wouldn’t be able to spot within the help of these great images.

Located within the provinces of Huelva, Sevilla and Cádiz, Parque Nacional de Doñana has grown around the delta of the Guadalquivir River and is one of Europe’s most prominent wetland reserves and conservation centers. It covers an immense 1,300 sq km area and is popular with a huge variety of migrating birds, including five threatened bird species and the critically endangered Iberian Lynx.